10 End of Summer Snapshots For Closing Out Your Practice Planning

Fall may be just around the corner but there’s still time to take a snapshot of your practice to help guide your efforts over the rest of the year and beyond. Here are 10 quick snaps you can take right now…

Thought Leadership: What are you known for? How can you boost your reputation in that area? What would you like to add to the body of thought on that subject?

Bench Strength: Is everyone on your team well matched to the work they are doing? What has to change to deliver on your firm’s promise to its clients?

P&L: Where is the money coming from and where is it going? What has to change over the next four months to meet your objectives?

Analytics: How are your website, blog and social media initiatives doing? Are you getting the results you want? What has to be added, changed or dropped altogether to improve your ROI?

Marketing: What have you done? What could you still do? Who or what do you need to make it happen?

Referral Sources: Which ones are working? Which are not? Who would you like to cultivate? Who has to be moved to the back or off the list?

Visibility: Where are you and/or the firm being seen? Where would you like to show up? What has to happen to achieve that goal? PR firm? More articles for publication? More opportunities to speak? How will you hit your goals?

Existing Clients: Which are your best clients–the ones you love working with, the ones that made you glad you chose law as your career? Which ones make you cringe–the ones that simply cost too much to support in terms of their impact on your morale and that of your team.

Client Targets: Who would you like to reel in? What do you need to accomplish that goal?

Room For Growth: Do you have room (time, talent, space, resources) to grow your practice? What has to come and go to make room for that growth?

The secret to this exercise is two-fold: do it now and don’t spend too much time overthinking it. Your first impression is probably the right one so, kick back with your “photos” and daydream a little about what you’d like to do about what you see.